


Paint you with love

by Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:15:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27286273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun/pseuds/Falling_Has_Never_Been_More_Fun
Summary: Soul marks and fate are never wrong.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Kudos: 35





	Paint you with love

Katara didn’t really notice the faded color of the mark on her palm as covered as it was with others. Sokka had to be the one to point out the grey on her neck. The grey of death of broken bonds, she wished briefly that Zuko had never touched her, that what they could’ve been had never colored her skin.

  
When she saw him again she didn’t really mean to threaten him. She didn’t really mean to push him so far away.

  
He didn’t wear the short sleeved top again after their conversation.

  
When they came back with her father safe she nearly went to him, nearly grabbed his hand where Sokka had painted him blue, because that blue covered her once red mark it was still grey and she wondered if it was her feelings that had broken the bond beyond repair or his.

  
She didn’t want to notice how Zuko took great pains to never touch her skin, as if he was afraid there’d be no color or just more of the death grey. She didn’t want to notice as he slowly allowed Aang to color him orange gold and Toph a pretty sunset pink, Suki stained his skin purple. And he never touched her. It hurt a little because they were friends now, a little because he’d allowed everyone else to paint him with their love and all she’d added to his skin was rejection and death.

  
His uncle colored the side of his neck in a pure pink like dawn rising and her hand went to her neck and imagined the red that used to stain it. It would break her heart to have that touch only to discover it was another color she’d almost rather it be nothing instead of what she’s long thought of as their red. She knew he cared for her like he cared for all of the Gaang, Katara just wished she knew if he would still love her like destiny said he would.

  
When Zuko took the lightning meant for her she didn’t stop to think about soul marks and her fear that theirs had changed had blacked too much to repair.

  
Even knowing his preference for her to not touch his skin she pulled his tunic from his wound and placed her hands over his heart. If she was too scared to move them it was because she wanted to feel his heart beat not because she didn’t want to see the color she left behind. And when the fire sages attempted to remove her she swept one hand out; the water in the burning air turning into a thin sheet of ice. But she wasn’t focused on them because where her palm had been it was now bright red. A richer red than had previously been on her neck and fingers.  
It was many hours later that she could look at her palms at the bright almost blood red and she wondered if he would be happy with new marks.

  
And it was many years later when the marks went gray again, like her hair like her eyes, that she knew the marks had never lied, their children proof enough that fate knew what she was doing. She laid down next to him, no to his body his soul was long gone, and she breathed her last into his still chest knowing he’d paint her red again the moment they saw each other again.


End file.
